Society and faith

Robert Strommen
  • 0.0 (0)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

This podcast invites listeners to reflect on their own beliefs and assumptions, urging a deeper examination of the building blocks of truth, reason, and faith that guide our lives.In a world where information is abundant and perspectives are diverse, questions surrounding the nature of truth, reason, and faith remain as relevant as ever. A new exploration into these fundamental concepts challenges us to consider how truth is defined, tested, and understood in both individual and collective contexts.This podcast dives into the relationship between objective truth and personal experience, suggesting that while truth may be universal, our interpretations are often shaped by personal encounters, biases, and cultural influences. Drawing on insights from philosophy, history, and human behavior, I draw the focus in the importance of transparency in methods of testing truth, advocating for approaches that are rigorous, reliable, and open to scrutiny.At the heart of this series is the idea that while reason and logic are essential tools in our search for truth, faith also plays a crucial role. Faith should not be seen as blind or irrational but as a necessary complement to reason, providing the foundation for understanding what is yet to be fully revealed or understood.Ultimately, the exploration suggests that truth, morality, and human understanding are interwoven in a complex tapestry shaped by both objective reality and subjective experience. It challenges us to navigate these concepts with humility, transparency, and a commitment to continual learning.Thank you for trying out this podcast. I want to give credit to my very good friend Jesse B. Glass, for creating the introduction-music to this podcast. He has also helped me edit the episodes. Thank you Jesse!

Episodes

  1. APR 20

    Instrument for knowing

    Click here to write us a note . Humanity are made up with this instrument of knowing, and by that also knowing right from wrong. This instrument varies amongst us all, but it is within us all. This instrument can be trained to get better, and it can be fogged by not focusing on this area of life experience. This is the sense of logic that knows the colors blue from red and by seeing objects, and gives it tags. George Herbert Mead (Mead, 1985) focused on this area in the developing of his work on interaction. When children see a ball, the child identifies it for itself and gives it a name or a meaning. An object will be such for the child until the parent or education gives proper name to it. The recognizing and placing of objects in the life of the individual is the same intellect and instrument we all are given from birth. The same is also true for the individual’s ability to know the specter of morality.   Morality can be sharpened, and it can be numbed. By environment different codes of conduct can be taught and understood.  The different ethics in different cultures prove that we can have a group morality, but it cannot take away the individual’s free agency. Though it surely molds the being, it is ultimately the individual’s decision-making. If knowledge in morality is a virtue for humans, it can be understood that morals are a common understanding and something of reason for humanity in general.  What gives the right choices in circumstances will always have variety, because we value differently in areas of life. Some focus on the better good of society, others focus on the rights of the human being in that instance. The specter can be wide, but to realize that it exists helps in understanding that it is a part of being human.   There must therefore be something of knowledge in this universe that is called truth. Though cultural differences and historical eras give color and variations to the perspective of truth, the elements of truth must always stay the same. Truth has therefore always been shaded, knowing we have limitations as individuals, technology and time. There must be something pure, something that contains no fault, something so bright that we can’t see it.  If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Sources: Mead, G. H. (1985). Mind, Selff and Society. 60637, USA: The University of Chicago Press.     Support the show

    13 min

  2. JAN 28

    The commonality of human experince

    Click here to write us a note . This episode will go into what I want to call the commonality of our human experience. History has collected past encounters and today we have close access to the field of this phenomenon called life. The human experience is our common meeting or encounter with life and pursuit of meaning. The collection of our common stories and what we have met as humanity gives us the ability to check the validity to claims of truths that have been made, and we have the chance to test them. In our time we have “big data” of history as technology has “big data” to go through in our time, through the internet. Again we find that the Interconnectedness has woven us together and we have million pieces of the worlds puzzle that needs to be put back together. Therefore, we have a great opportunity to discover findings that we are searching for. If we succumb to limiting the collected data that goes against our experienced understanding, we lose objectivity. We also lose the mark of our original intended purpose in pursuing meaning and truth. Therefore, the value of going through “big data” is immense, and that is where I believe the positive sides of postmodern theory and perspectives can help us. Where prejudice is allowed to belong, it can really injure the quality of objectivity, and by that also our worldview is harmed and limited. Where past wounds and hurt distort our acceptance of findings, we find help in aligning it with the common encounters recorded in history.   Many truth claims have risen in history and have gained the acceptance of the majority. The reasons are several, all from the power of influence to the limits of understanding of the times that have gone. The focus of cultures has changed over time, and values and what’s of importance have varied. Societies have put deep meaning to their claimed truths, and ideologies and religions have implemented beliefs on the people. Nevertheless, truth itself was never affected by the shifting’s and changes, but the perspectives were. The collection of common experiences through time has varied, but what they have encountered has always been life. How history was written was influenced by their values. The collection of human experience through history and all collected data expresses different worldviews, but the building blocks were always the same.   To uphold objective truth there is an element of perspectival meaning that we need to acknowledge. As we previously have discussed; to have objectivity, the encounters must therefore stand for themselves when we testify of what we encounter, what we see, hear, smell, feel, taste. When these encounters occur, it can then be compared to the encounter's others have had.   Now human experience is not all positivistic. It cannot all be measured and controlled, as it can be with natural science. To observe from outside alone doesn’t give sufficient answers. History is encounters of the world translated to experiences. You cannot analyze from outer position alone, because there is an instrument of understanding that lies within humanity. That is why comparable transparency is what gives weight to claims. As we write down and as we speak out what we encounter, it can then be easier measured and analyzed.   If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Support the show

    13 min

  3. JAN 14

    Imprints

    Click here to write us a note . Every season in history has had its own pressure on it. The times shift and they create change and movement on society.  In our own space we become blinded by the forces we can’t see, cause they are new and shifting to us. We have never been here, and we do not know how to handle what we meet. We must take a step back and process what we are experiencing, and hopefully we can ht some elements of truth and reconciliation with our time. When the future comes we have scars from our periods. We have hurts that linger and memories of impacts that we try to deal with. Coping with experiences that needs solutions in our lives. We need closure and healing. We live in ignorance until reality becomes something we understand. Our fathers and mothers lived in their ignorance, and somehow they found healing with the times before theirs.  We lived in simple forms and peace of mind until change and movement happened. We reacted badly and hurtful, but we needed to react. Humanity reacts to what it meets. How few were the ones who saw before, awaited in calmness and embraced change with beauty.  Now the world has changed, we come face to face with realities we never knew. The Interconnectedness has woven us together and we have million pieces of the worlds puzzle that needs to be put back together again.  The world perhaps never did change but our perspectives have been reborn. We now have new eyes. The ways of the world goes in orbit but the environmental states recreates. Things that were will come again, but they have a surprising element about them.  We must have grace concerning the world we came into, cause they did what they understood. We must have grace with the world ahead of us, cause we only know what we know. If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Support the show

    18 min

  4. 12/30/2024

    Encounters vs experience

    Click here to write us a note . This episode has focus on differenciating our experiences with the actual encounters we have in life. Our approach to thought is built on past encounters. The language and terms we use in our thinking is built from the culture and environment we grow up in (Mead, 1985) but the instrument we use is our own. I use the word encounters because our experiences are controlled by more than our encounters. By experiences we implement our thoughts, our emotions, our pasts, our wellbeing to the equation. An example would be if someone gave you some advice, and because of whatever state you were in, you could not receive or understand it. Perhaps later slowly the advice would come to you, or perhaps when someone else said the same words they just connected with you.   We live and act affected by our experiences, and our experiences become our truths. The reason for separating the two is our unavoidable inability to perfectly understand signals from the outside world. In a classroom the student may have understood the teacher a certain way, and that would be their experience. Though the teacher could have given the right lesson or answer, it may not have been received in the way the teacher intended. This noise or disturbance in life is therefore our cultures, past experiences, prejudice, and our worldviews. We encounter one thing, but we have the ability to experience something other. The reason we may do this and live like this is because of the cause and effect.   The cause must be held to an outer impact, and not with a melting with the inside. We must separate the encounter from the experience. If we live by our experience alone and do not weigh it with the meeting of transparent and outer truth, we may end up in fault. To jump to conclusions and build your life upon a perceived truth may end badly. An individual could then establish a complete worldview on information that has limited truth to it. Because encounters or truth, has been melted with individual meaning. An individual’s experienced truth based on worldview cannot operate as objective truth. When we then come to the power of ideas that end up as ideologies, they can uphold truth claims, but cannot be objective. To live by other than objective truths would therefore be accepting a manipulation of objective truth, or at best being ignorant. In life we must accept being ignorant in areas, we cannot be experts in every field. We must choose what we allow to have in our lives, and we must endeavor to chase what holds an everlasting truth.  If truth of life and meaning is the main object, we must start with the building blocks for life, and see the cause and effect of life, and of meaning. With a worldview that is disconnected with outside truth, we at best do not know it yet. At worst we delude truth. If individual truth does not coincide with what we encounter in the human experience, it cannot maintain its objectivity. It cannot therefore obtain the quality of upholding a truth claim.   If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Sources: Ayer, A. J. (2001). Hume: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Mead, G. H. (1985). Mind, Selff and Society. 60637, USA: The University of Chicago Press.   Support the show

    22 min

  5. 12/23/2024

    Transparency in methods

    Click here to write us a note . How have we come to know, and how we can affirm it with validation? A clear and visual approach to a claim will let you confide in your own understanding of things, but it is ourselves that are the testing instruments. It must be a trustworthy method that humanity can relate to, and the method must have the ability to be checked for flaws. Approach the steps with caution and be aware of the influence of self, culture and prejudice. To test a truth-statement the method of testing must be transparent and have the common acceptability as valid. It must rely on commonality, and the methods must receive the same results.   To be acceptant to different results is mandatory, because it cannot be a fixed experiment, which only works for selected groups. It is a prerequisite that the results be allowed to play out to know and understand cause and effect. A bias in expectance of results will skew the analysis. Therefore, past evidence and encounters must be recognized as a proclamation, or a hypothesis, until the individual can prove it.  To test an object for material content, we must find the elements it contains. We break it down and find the building blocks. Truth must be tested the same way. The test of causal effects, as Hume (Ayer, 2001) laid it out must eliminate any misinterpretation so that we know what comes before the other. Small microscopic details will change the results and create a different product.   Therefore, when thought or ideology is at it’s test, every aspect of the thought-line must be tested with thoroughness. Because it can have completely different results and might be at fault. To be cautious of the details is therefore quite important because it will not portray truth, if it doesn’t contain the elements of truth. If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Sources: Ayer, A. J. (2001). Hume: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods. OX2 6DP, UK: Oxford University Press. Support the show

    17 min

  6. 12/16/2024

    Ability to reason

    Click here to write us a note . In this episode I talk about abstract thinking and with our ability for reasoning. Aristotle (Cleary, 1985) said that abstract thinking is a sign of intelligence and a virtue in humanity. But where does this virtue agree with our collective common sense, where lies the acceptable rationality? How can we accept it without pressure, without mediums, without relying on others? How can we accept it when no one is allowed to influence us? Through educating ourselves we can achieve greater understanding of a truth, and without taking these steps we may find ourselves unsure and have to lean on others or accept being ignorant of some truth. We know that to understand entirely is impossible for humanity. So in this process there must inwardly be a true north, where humanity meets the outside of themselves, and it connects inside their very being.   Knowledge and wisdom have standards in our world. What we have learned of life through primary sources, secondary sources or through tertiary sources, are environmental and cultural layers to oneself. So, the question will be how many layers do we have to peel off to connect with our being? Our truths bounce between our fellow women and men. We strive to come to a common understanding in our existence, and it is stretched and tested as our worldview expands through ages and global interconnectedness.   If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel! Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Sources Cambridge University Press. (2023). dictionary. cambridge.org. Retrieved 11 22, 2023, from Cambridge.org: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/reason Cleary, J. J. (1985, 1). On the Termonology of Abstraction in Aristotle. Phronesis , pp. 13-45. Mead, G. H. (1985). Mind, Selff and Society. 60637, USA: The University of Chicago Press. Support the show

    19 min

  7. 12/11/2024

    What is truth?

    Click here to write us a note . This episode goes into the topic of what is truth, who can own the truth and who can really say they have objective truth? How far can we go in our pursuit and still maintain our objectivity? Truth must be a reality in itself no matter our personal opinions. It does not change because we change.  Truth needs to be drawn to the purest and perhaps simplest levels of knowledge. To areas where common sense lay, but not to be misunderstood as common knowledge. When we divert from the pure, we so easily get off track.    If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel!  Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Support the show

    17 min

  8. 12/11/2024

    Introduction

    Click here to write us a note . This is an introduction for what this podcast series will be about. I share my purpose and the aim for the project and here I go through the different topics i will go into. The different topics will be: What is truth?, Our ability to reason, Transparency in our methods, Encounters vs experience, Historical imprints, The commonality of our human experience, Our instruments for knowing, Subject of faith. My hope is that this series will inspire you. If you like this episode and the channel give it a rating and give a review and subscribe to the channel!  Also if you would like to get in contact with me you can click on "write us a note", write to my e-mail; robert.strommen@me.com or find me on instagram.com/societyandfaith/ Support the show

    15 min
  • 8 Episodes

About

This podcast invites listeners to reflect on their own beliefs and assumptions, urging a deeper examination of the building blocks of truth, reason, and faith that guide our lives.In a world where information is abundant and perspectives are diverse, questions surrounding the nature of truth, reason, and faith remain as relevant as ever. A new exploration into these fundamental concepts challenges us to consider how truth is defined, tested, and understood in both individual and collective contexts.This podcast dives into the relationship between objective truth and personal experience, suggesting that while truth may be universal, our interpretations are often shaped by personal encounters, biases, and cultural influences. Drawing on insights from philosophy, history, and human behavior, I draw the focus in the importance of transparency in methods of testing truth, advocating for approaches that are rigorous, reliable, and open to scrutiny.At the heart of this series is the idea that while reason and logic are essential tools in our search for truth, faith also plays a crucial role. Faith should not be seen as blind or irrational but as a necessary complement to reason, providing the foundation for understanding what is yet to be fully revealed or understood.Ultimately, the exploration suggests that truth, morality, and human understanding are interwoven in a complex tapestry shaped by both objective reality and subjective experience. It challenges us to navigate these concepts with humility, transparency, and a commitment to continual learning.Thank you for trying out this podcast. I want to give credit to my very good friend Jesse B. Glass, for creating the introduction-music to this podcast. He has also helped me edit the episodes. Thank you Jesse!

Information

  • Creator
    Robert Strommen
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Society and faith
  • Show Website
    Society and faith